One Diver's Musings on His Impact

[Sergeant Pepper]

Anyone remember this?

http://www.nwdiveclub.com/gallery/d/883-2/IMG_0001.jpg

I was talking to Grateful Diver the other day about this Octo because I had not seen her or her eggs the last couple of times that I had been down. He said that she had died before the eggs were hatched. I had, on more than one occasion, taken someone to see her. I couldn’t shake the thought that somehow I was partially responsible for it since I had been down to see her 3 times and if I had seen her 3 times and you had seen her 3 times and they had seen her 3 times, well ….

While I had never encroached upon her space, I had shined a light directly at her quite a number of times as I’m sure others had and obviously, I have a picture, so someone was close enough for that.

I’m a little bothered now when I see this picture. Some may ask what I would have done differently; not gone to see, not taken others to see, not stayed for as long or gotten as close. I don’t have an answer for that, but I think most of us on this website try to be conscientious divers and it behooves us to take time and realize the impact we do have on other living things, some more than others, because they may be more interesting at the time.

If not this forum, then where, if not us then who?

Here’s to cognizance.

[Sasquatch]

I'm sure other divers more informed then I will chime in here but my uneducated impression is that GPO's have a surprisingly short lifespan. That females, after securing their eggs, pretty well wind down and pass on.

My personal experience with GPO's over the years has led me to believe that they are otherwise fairly hardy creatures that suffer the benign attention of divers quite well. I might add that on many occasions I stayed well back and was approached by big octos that initiated the encounter. They seemed as curious as I and after a while moved away.

I hope the specific octo died naturally at the end of her life cycle and I suspect that was the case.

[Joshua Smith]

My understanding was that the female wouldn't naturally expire until her eggs had hatched. I have no idea whether looking at them and shining lights on them would cause them to die prematurely, but I wouldn't be at all suprised if some moron had done something more extreme. I hope not, but you never know.

[Sounder]

Never under estimate the power of a moron... I'm right there with Nailer. I doubt your trips to "visit" were responsible for her death. As I understand it, some females just simply don't make it until the eggs hatch once they stop eating and start tending the nest. I'll be interested to hear what more experienced folks have to say.

[thelawgoddess]

If not this forum, then where, if not us then who?

what a heartfelt post, sgt pepper. thanks for sharing. looking forward to learning more from those who might be [more in] the know ...

[Grateful Diver]

My understanding was that the female wouldn't naturally expire until her eggs had hatched. I have no idea whether looking at them and shining lights on them would cause them to die prematurely, but I wouldn't be at all suprised if some moron had done something more extreme. I hope not, but you never know.

Well, first off ... this octopus didn't have nearly the number of visitations that Olive had a few years ago ... and Olive stayed alive right up until a few days after her eggs had hatched.

This year's octopus died in September ... after sitting in her den protecting her eggs since about late January (that's when we initially found her).

I've watched several octos on eggs over the last few years, and many (most?) simply don't make it to the hatching. They die of the fact that they don't eat. We (stupidly? compassionatly?) tried bringing crabs to Olive when we realized how bad she was getting, and she wasn't interested.

I doubt a "moron" had anything to do with this octopus's death ... I suspect it was just her time to go.

Rest in peace, dear lady ...



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Sergeant Pepper]

I agree with everything here. I guess "responsible" was not the right word, maybe "complicit" is closer. In their natural environment away from dive sites, they would get no visitors, at Cove 2, however, they get numerous. I've got to believe there is a certain amount of stress involved for the Octo tending eggs who receive visitors, however small. From my perspective, it was just a reminder to be aware of our responsibilities.

[Pinkpadigal]

I remember Olive. For the newer divers, she was a huge GPO that lived under a log, at about 100 feet in Cove 2 in 2002.

I went to see her many times and I remember how awesome it was to see her eggs hatching, in September 2002. (has it been that long???) I like to think because we were aware of her and her eggs, that more of her offspring survived, mainly because the divers chased off many of the preditors that were "waiting" for her eggs to hatch.

From what I understand, GPOs live 3-4 years. This is a cool website about them.

http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/programs/expert/octopus/

[Joshua Smith]

My understanding was that the female wouldn't naturally expire until her eggs had hatched. I have no idea whether looking at them and shining lights on them would cause them to die prematurely, but I wouldn't be at all suprised if some moron had done something more extreme. I hope not, but you never know.

Well, first off ... this octopus didn't have nearly the number of visitations that Olive had a few years ago ... and Olive stayed alive right up until a few days after her eggs had hatched.

This year's octopus died in September ... after sitting in her den protecting her eggs since about late January (that's when we initially found her).

I've watched several octos on eggs over the last few years, and many (most?) simply don't make it to the hatching. They die of the fact that they don't eat. We (stupidly? compassionatly?) tried bringing crabs to Olive when we realized how bad she was getting, and she wasn't interested.

I doubt a "moron" had anything to do with this octopus's death ... I suspect it was just her time to go.

That's comforting, actually. I had read in numerous places that the mother would sit on the eggs until they hatched, then die. I wondered about that, and it makes sense that they expire before the main event sometimes, but I've never actually observed one throughout it's incubation.

[gcbryan]

As has already been posted, sometimes they make it until the eggs hatch and sometimes they don't. It's not that unusual. Out of the thousands of eggs that do hatch only 2 or 3 will make it to year one.

Being a GPO is not an easy life!